Welcome to W's Laser-Projects page !

I am reviving my laser hobby... as I do feel an urge to do something practical and swing the soldering iron once in a while, or just contemplate upon the beauty of a beam of coherent light!
This is mainly for the fun of tinkering with electronics and building stuff, but I do a bit of holography as well, in order to have a good use of my lasers.

I just started a blog, let's see how it evolves!

• Gallery of holograms, my holography technical setup, computerized remote control 


• Converting the OEM Lexel 88 argon laser head for holography
• Home-built ion laser 6KW switchmode power supply, old linearly regulated version


• Home brew controller for the Coherent Compass 315M100 DPSS laser head, with USB computer interface
  Details: laser diode driver, TEC controllers, digital USB interface, measurements   


• Single mode diode lasers for holography: 
• Design requirements for single mode diode lasers, and discussion of stable diode and TEC drivers
• Detailed mode analysis of various popular high power DVD laser diodes, incl summary; blue Nichia diode included
• 100mW+ single mode ECDL lasers, general remarks and individual diode tests.
Laser design studies:
• Diode laser module by Colin Kaminski
• Highly stable reference design for a red diode laser 
• Driver boards and lasers (sold out)


• Laser spectrum analysis with regard to coherence length.
  A number of lasers, like Coherent Compass and Sapphire, Lexel 88, etc, is tested.
  Home-build instrumentation:
• Fabry-Perot scanning interferometer - checking longitudinal mode structure of various lasers
• Optical spectrum analyzer with CCD sensor readout and 0.006nm resolution


• Some utilities, schematics, diagrams, tests and other minor projects:
  • Generate interactively ready-to-use exposure time diagrams for holography, for cheap integrated light sensors
    and common films.
  • Info on monolithic light sensors for holography use, incl. an easy-to-build exposure meter.
  • Reprogramming the Newport 835 power meter for data from 818-series sensor calibration modules
  • Simple precision transimpedance amplifier for use with Newort 818-series detectors
  • Remarks on the SDL-800 laser diode/TEC controller; incl. modifications for avoiding temperature oscillations and running blue diodes such as the 1W Nichia.
  • Remarks about the Rofin-Sinar RSO 6000 scanning monochromator/optical spectrum analyzer
  • Cooling water interlock circuit using flow wheel
  • Various film sizes compared to various collimation mirror sizes, for normal and Brewster angle illumination
  • The saga of using green LEDs as power meters (don't!)
  • Simple PWM peltier driver for cooling high power laser diodes
  • Super simple PWM peltier driver for low power laser diodes
  • Converting a 780nm single mode extended cavity (ECDL) laser to visible red
  • Wideband, low noise photodiode amplifier
  • Noise detector for monitoring mode jumps
  • Remarks about the Burleigh Wavemeter Jr WA-2000/2500, incl LabVIEW driver
  • Revitalizing the Coherent Sapphire 488-20
  • Precision measurements
  
  
• Some prehistoric older lasers  
• Memories of old times as a radio amateur...

In the background, my Lexel 88 argon ion laser head which can deliver more than 2W of blue-green light,
I mainly use it for holography. Shown here is a setup for calibrating light sensors:

Terrorizing neighbors is a tempting alternative: